1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of preventing tangle in wired devices and more particularly to an apparatus and method that prevents tangling of cables associated with wired earphones.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many present day devices have plug-in wired earphones. Particularly prevalent is the iPod™, iPhone™ and iPad™ sold by Apple Corporation. Unfortunately, the cables on the earphones of these devices have a tendency to become totally tangled almost every time they are put away. Most people simply wrap the wires in a ball and put them in their pocket. When they pull them out, the wires are hopelessly tangled, sometimes taking several minutes to straighten out. It is possible to wind the wires around the device, but they tend to slip off and still become tangled. It would be advantageous to have an apparatus and method to prevent this tangling.
It is known in the art to provide cases for headphones where the wires are wound up after use; however, these are bulky and don't universally handle different types and sizes of earphones. For example, Shack et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,512, teach a wind-up single earphone in a case where the cable is pulled out of the case for use under spring tension. This requires the case and earphone to be supplied together, and does not provide well for two earphones.
Yao et al., in U.S. Publication number 2005/0123164, teach a mobile device cold holder similar to hand reels for fishing known in the art. This device is bulky and tends be become separated from the earphone. This method is also difficult to use with two earphones.
It would be extremely advantageous to have an apparatus that would prevent tangling during use and then simply fold up with the earphones when not in use continuously preventing tangling in storage.